Cruciate retaining versus posterior-stabilized total knee arthroplasty: a short-term comparative study
<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Total knee arthroplasty has got excellent results. Among the techniques (posterior-stabilized vs posterior cruciate retaining total knee arthroplasty) it is unclear whether one design has superior outcome over another. The purpose of the present study was to directly compare clinical and radiological outcomes of these two designs.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A prospective study involving 36 patients who received a cruciate-retaining implant were compared to 30 patients who received posterior-stabilized prosthesis. At 3 months follow-up time clinical and radiological evaluation done and results were analyzed.<strong></strong></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> At 3 months follow-up time mean knee society scores improved from 49.9/46.9 (objective/subjective score) points to 80.9/82.5 points in the cruciate-retaining group and from 48.2/43 (objective/subjective score) points to 80.4/80.2 points in the posterior-stabilized group. The ranges of motion was 117.2° (range, 90° to 130°) and 125.3° (range, 100° to 140°) in the cruciate-retaining and posterior-stabilized group respectively, at 3 month follow-up. One patient had post-operatively periprosthetic fracture reported after 2 weeks (treated conservatively), one had superficial infection (treated with dressing) and one patient with superfical infection required debridement.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> This study did not conclusively demonstrate the superiority of one knee design over the other, suggesting that the choice of implant should be based on surgeon preference, patients knee dimensions, pre-op knee deformity and existing pathology of the posterior cruciate ligament.</p>